FROM 19TH TO HISTORY: ANTONELLI BREAKS ASCARI’S RECORD AND ENDS ITALY’S 60-YEAR MONZA WAIT
Starting 19th, Kimi Antonelli completed the lowest-grid victory in Italian Grand Prix history and claimed his seventh win of 2026. The result moved him beyond Alberto Ascari’s Italian single-season record and made him the first Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix since Ludovico Scarfiotti in 1966.
FROM 19TH TO THE LEAD
Antonelli started on the hard tyres after an engine-related grid penalty dropped him to 19th. His recovery was already underway before the race’s first major interruption: by the time Charles Leclerc’s early crash brought out the red flag for barrier repairs, Antonelli had gained seven positions and reached 12th.
The stoppage allowed Mercedes to switch him from the hard compound to mediums. Antonelli continued moving through the field after the restart, working past the McLarens, Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen before overtaking Russell at the first chicane to lead on Lap 18.
The two Mercedes drivers then exchanged the lead as they separated themselves from the rest of the field, but another interruption created a new strategic decision.
WHAT THE RED FLAG AND VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR CHANGED
The red flag and later Virtual Safety Car both helped create opportunities for Antonelli, but neither handed him the victory.
The early stoppage allowed him to change tyres without making a conventional green-flag pit stop, but Antonelli was still outside the top 10 and had several cars to pass. His pace had already carried him from 19th to 12th before the field was stopped.
Later, Lance Stroll’s hydraulic failure triggered the Virtual Safety Car. Mercedes used the reduced-time-loss period to give Antonelli a fresh set of mediums, while Russell remained on his existing hard tyres. Antonelli surrendered track position and rejoined sixth, requiring him to work through the leading group again.
Mercedes later explained that the one-stop strategy initially appeared slightly stronger, but Antonelli’s pace made the additional stop successful. After returning to second, he closed on Russell during the final laps.
Antonelli’s first attempt at the lead on Lap 49 ended with a trip through the gravel at the first chicane. He regrouped and attacked again on the following lap, completing the decisive pass between Lesmo 2 and the Ascari chicane with three laps remaining.
WIN NO. 7 SURPASSES ASCARI
Antonelli’s seventh victory of 2026 establishes a new record for the most Formula 1 World Championship wins by an Italian driver in one season.
Alberto Ascari set the previous benchmark in 1952, when he won six of the seven championship races he contested on his way to the first of his two world titles. No Italian had surpassed that total until Antonelli’s victory at Monza.
The result also ended another of Italian motorsport’s longest waits. Before Antonelli, Ludovico Scarfiotti was the most recent Italian to win the Italian Grand Prix, driving for Ferrari at Monza in 1966.
Sixty years later, Antonelli became the first Italian since Scarfiotti to win his home Grand Prix. Mercedes also confirmed that the result was the 50th Formula 1 World Championship victory achieved by an Italian driver.
WHERE THE P19 COMEBACK RANKS
Antonelli’s recovery establishes a new Italian Grand Prix record. The previous lowest winning starting position belonged to Peter Gethin, who won the 1971 race from 11th. Antonelli started eight positions farther back.
Across Formula 1 World Championship history, only John Watson has won from farther back on the grid. Watson started 22nd at the 1983 United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach.
The result converted Antonelli’s pre-race opportunity into confirmed history: seven victories in one season, the first Italian home winner in six decades and a comeback from a position no previous Italian Grand Prix winner had overcome.
